Why Buy American? An Honest Introspection

Recently, an old friend of mine bluntly told me he doesn’t care about buying American-made products. He knew my wife and I ran My American Goods, so perhaps he was being deliberately provocative. But perhaps he truly didn’t care. And so I honestly asked myself, “Why should he? Why should we all care about buying American?”

Here are some answers I came up with:

First, I should have told my friend, “It’s the economy, stupid.”

It sounds obvious, but it’s actually interesting to think more deeply about: buying American is much better for our local economies and communities .

Each company we feature not only create jobs, they’re part of a nexus that supports entire industries. For example, Devium, in Truckee, California, purchases cotton from American farms in the South, and zippers and buttons from American mills in the Northeast. Stargazer, which makes cast iron cookware out of Allen, Pennsylvania, depends on American iron manufacturing. Under Luna, makers of superior skin and haircare products in Oregon, sources from specialty farmers all over the Pacific Northwest, providing a consistent buyer in these markets. Anima Mundi, master botanist making wellness products out of Brooklyn, supports wildcrafting and herb growing within an urban landscape. Rogue Industries, makers of leather bags and wallets in Portland, Maine, depends on high-grain leather produced in Texas. I could go on, but you get the point.

Each community in which these products are made and sourced have more robust economies. Robust local economies translates to more vibrant towns centers, safer streets, better schools, and happier people with an overall better quality of life.

The alternatives are beige neighborhoods where people work in offices in which they move digital money around, or sell products made cheaply in Asia, elevating a foreign economy while weakening their own, or neighborhoods that have no decent jobs to speak of at all. In these places, you have depressed, demoralized, even depraved situations.

So I should have asked my friend, “Who do you want to benefit? People who make our communities better, or people who make our communities worse? If the former, then you should care about buying American.”

A second reason to by American is because it’s better for the environment.

Overseas shipping equals massive pollution. Cheaply-made products equals massive waste. Yet when American artisans hand-craft high-quality clothes, bags, and cookware designed to last a lifetime, that means less goes in landfills , less money comes out of consumers’ bank accounts over time, and products travel less distance—without any overseas shipping at all.

Makers who take pride in what they create don’t use toxic ingredients. As they’re small businesses, they don’t produce waste. Sustainability is built into their bottom line.

So I should have asked my friend, “If you don’t care about your local economy, do you care about your environment? If so, then you should care about buying American.”

A third reason to care about buying American is simply for quality.

Yes, it’s true that other countries can make high-quality goods—some of the best wool clothes and leather bags are produced in Italy, for example, and the best alpaca sweaters are made in Peru. It’s also true that not everything made in America is good quality—after all, private equity has hollowed out the industries that once made America great.

But there’s a sense of pride I feel when I buy and use a supremely-high quality product made in the USA. When I wear my American-made jacket, jeans, and T-shirts; or use my American made shampoo and conditioner; or drink my American made herbals; or pack my American-made leather bag, I’m proud of the people who made it. And I’m proud of myself for buying it—even if I spent a few dollars more.

Trust me, while vacationing in Italy, Spain, Greece, and elsewhere, I’ve searched small shops for locally-made skincare products and candles, but nothing in Europe matches what people make in America. There, they always use synthetic fragrances and other factory-made chemicals; here, we have makers rendering their own tallow and scenting it with essential oils they distilled and blended themselves. How awesome is that?

In an age of cheap overseas mass-production, when so many consumers no longer value quality, I think it’s awesome that Middleton Made handcrafts beautiful culinary knives in South Carolina, and Burn Bags USA hand makes bags out of retired fire hoses in North Carolina, Artsy Em makes stoneware pottery cups in Colorado, and that Merritt Charles, American Trench, and Boathouse are devoted to making all kinds of apparel in the USA.

And so I should have asked my friend, “Do you want to participate in awesome?”

Because that’s what you’re doing when you buy American—you’re participating in the awesomeness of the creativity, ingenuity, and capability shown by American makers.